Kitchen Sink Press, 196 pages, ISBN 9780878160181
(also available in The Contract with God Trilogy (2005) - Will Eisner, W.W. Norton, 544 pages, ISBN 9780393061055)
(photo credit: www.goodreads.com)
Annotation: Considered by many to be the first true graphic novel, Eisner’s collection of four short, semi-autobiographical stories of Jewish life in and around the Bronx in the 1930s are just as effective and striking today as they were in 1978.
Booktalk: When your little daughter dies, do you blame God and turn your back on Him? (Didn’t the two of you have an agreement?) When a washed-out diva befriends a singing wino, does it mean the resurrection of her career at last? How long can a selfish building superintendent ignore his tenants before they take matters into their own hands? When you escape the city’s tenements for a vacation in the country, can you really get away from your own fears and prejudices?
Comic book icon Eisner’s landmark graphic novel (considered to be the first to use that term) blew open the doors for what the graphic form could do: entertain while dealing with issues of tragedy, alienation, segregation, persecution, prejudice, poverty, sorrow, street life and the daily pressures of the Great Depression in the Bronx. Read A Contract with God and witness the birth of a literary form.
I really like this booktalk, but I'm wondering - do you think teens would enjoy this booktalk? I ask because some terms you use, but sound dry to teens like "icon," "building superintendent," and "tenements." Some synonyms that might work could be: "legend" for "icon," "landlord" for "building superintendent", and "slum" or "projects" for "tenements"...
ReplyDelete